Any linguist will tell you that languages differ when it comes to how easily they let you specify information. At Slate, Gretchen McCullochpoints to a video that highlights four linguistic features we might like to have in English.

"It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this." Stephen Kingtalked to The Atlantic about what makes a good first line and picked a few of the best. Also read the favorite opening lines of Jonathan Franzen, Roxane Gay and others.

“What traits make Austen special, and can they be measured with data? Can literary genius be graphed?” The New York Timestackles the question of why, 200 years after her death, Jane Austen is still so popular. (One finding: the author“used intensifying words — like very, much, so — at a higher rate than other writers.") See also: our interview with Curtis Sittenfeld, whose most-recent novel Eligible is the ultimate literary tribute, an adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Mexican novelist and part-time literary prankster Mario Bellatin is up to his old tricks again. This time, the one-armed author/provocateur has decided to wage war against his own publisher. Bellatin claims the twentieth anniversary edition of his classic Beauty Salon was published too early and without his express consent–a brief "coda from the author" was included which Bellatin insists was nothing but a draft in progress. As such, he has been urging fans not to purchase his book.

Here are the first lines of some wonderful short stories from Bukowksi, Kafka, and Barthelme illustrated with simple 8 bit images. And here are eleven American movie posters rendered by artist Murat Palta in the style of classic Ottoman art. I especially dig the one based on Scarface.